See with these Acers they don't follow the mini PCIE interface spec at all. They use the same 1.8" drives found in MP3 players. I've found all sorts of solid state and spindle drives I could use, but they're either used (old Zunes and iPods) or cost prohibitive. With two SD slots I can slap in 32GB of fast-enough storage pretty cheap. And thus far I really haven't needed any more anyway. I've been streaming XMRadio for music and Netflix for movies. Done, and done. I'm trying really hard to keep this an internet appliance.
damn dude, how many laptops you got? seems like you buy one every month thats a baddass little netbook. im waiting on a touchscreen netbook so i can use it in the car
touch screen would be bad ass. are those on the way? i would assume it would add a lot of cost though.
eeepc t91 Eee PC T91 convertible tablet lives (Update: Video!) - Engadget and eeepc T101h Asus unveils Eee PC T101H touchscreen netbook too
seems they are just around the corner. I wonder how much they will be. I like the ones now as they are $300, which is something that I could do. Anymore than that and it's just a bit too much for me. But I probably won't be investing in one of these until next Christmas anyways.
Ugh, didn't get it b/c my company is making us take pay cuts so I'll be jewing it up more than usual.
Yeah, this model is an outlet item at this point. Only two Best Buys in the entire Cincinnati tri-state area had them in stock. I even checked Dayton, Columbus, Lexington, all the major surrounding cities - no stock.
we recently bought one. it's running on xp now and it's sooo slloooww. I think it's mainly the harddrive. I want to install linux on it.
Yeah, the hard drive is definitely the limiting factor. Running the task manager you can see the CPU is essentially idling. Switching to Firefox is definitely a good idea. Another nuisance I'm working on is the Wi-Fi driver - it reports the signal as "excellent" no matter how far I am from the access point. I know it's bullshit.
UPDATE: I finally got around to loading Ubuntu Remix and it's SOOOO much faster, nicer, etc. XP looks and feels like a dinosaur compared to it. And it even takes up less space - around 2GB versus the 3.5GB XP install. Just have to figure out how to get Netflix running. I've created Ghost images of both so I can easily switch back and forth if I choose. Given the performance and eye candy boost I'd really rather not use XP though unless I have to.
yea i was looking for it at bestbuy but didnt see it.. i wanted to get a handle of it IRL to get a good feel of the size and shit... but nope. fucking wankers and that ubuntu remix looks pretty slick, but im tired of the traditional ubuntu doodoo brown crap http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr
Found another speed enhancement for these slow SSD drive netbooks - set browser cache to be run in RAM only. So far seems a bit zippier. Type about:config into the Location Bar Set these preferences to these values.... browser.cache.disk.enable to False browser.cache.memory.enable to True
Just went back to my XP Home image and this trick works well for that as well. In fact the performance improvement is substantial enough that I'm considering leaving XP on there. Ubunutu Remix worked great, except for a bug where the sound wouldn't come back after the machine went into standby.
I just picked up the Dell Mini 12 (with the 60gb hd, bluetooth, webcam, 1gig of memory, and 802.11g card) for $355 shipped. I got it from the outlet store as a refurb unit, but I'm hoping it does what I need. I liked the reviews of the Acer, but I don't think I could get used to the mousepad. Also, the screen looked kinda weird (the border of plastic, looked tiny). We will see how it goes. It is supposed to ship tomorrow with the free 3-5 business day shipping. Doesn't look all that bad for the money. If there are problems, I do have the 1 year warranty. ~Will Courtier~
That's pretty sweet. One thing the Dell Minis have going for them is upgradeability. I never really looked into the Mini 12, but the 9 had super easy access to the RAM and hard drive slots. Plus there were a bunch of after market, faster SSDs available. With the Acer upgrading is a bitch, you literally have to remove the system board (from the top) just to get to anything. I don't really plan on upgrading though, so no biggie for me.
Yeah, I just figured I couldn't beat the computer for that price. Especially with those options. If I can find an SSD for a decent price, I'd love to swap it out. I'd just need something with some space (at least 30gig) to help keep me busy when underway. I am mainly going to use the computer for watching movies (I have 205 DVD's saved on my external drive right now). It's also very convenient for accessing the internet. The other parts will be mostly just for looks (what would I need a webcam for?). But, they might come in use someday.... ~Will Courtier~
So MSP, after a couple weeks use, what do you think? I had my heart set on an EEEpc with a SSD, but right one for the ones I want i'm looking at almost $600 cnd all said and done, which is kinda crazy and i'd also like to wait abit until they get quicker. someone on a local forum is selling one for $300 obo, I might offer him 250 for it, but I wanted to confrim a few things, here are the detail, some of it seems off to me Specifications: Acer Aspire One Model ZG5 Color White Operating System OS Provided Windows XP SP2 Processor CPU Type Intel Atom CPU Speed N270(1.60GHz) CPU FSB 533MHz CPU L2 Cache 512KB Chipset Chipset Intel 945GSE Display Screen Size 8.9" Widescreen Display Yes Display Type WSVGA Max Resolution 1024 x 600 Display Feature LED backlight & Acer CrystalBrite Technology Graphics Graphics Processor Intel GMA950 Video Memory Shared system memory Memory Memory Slots 1 x SODIMM Memory Speed DDR2 533 Memory 1.5GB just upgraded 2 weeks ago Memory Spec 512MB onboard/512MB SODIMM slot Hard Drive 80GB 7200 rpm for faster access Dimension & Weight Dimension 9.8" x 6.7" x 1.1" Weight 2.3 lbs. Netbook Camera Camera Type Acer Crystal Eye webcam Communications LAN 10/100Mbps WLAN 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Expansion / Connectivity USB 3 Video Ports 1 x VGA Audio Ports 1 x Microphone jack; 1 x Headphone jack Audio Audio Microsoft DirectSound compatibility Integrated digital microphone Speaker Built-in stereo speakers Input Device Touchpad Touchpad pointing device with two buttons Keyboard 84-key keyboard, embedded numeric keypad, hotkey controls, 1.6mm minimum key travel, international language support Card Reader Card Reader SD Card reader Multi-in-1 card reader Supporting Secure Digital (SD) Card, MultiMediaCard (MMC), Memory Stick (MS), Memory Stick PRO (MS PRO), xD-Picture Card (xD) Power AC Adapter 30-watt AC adapter Battery Battery 6-cell lithium ion Battery Life Up to 5.5 hours my concerns are, I thought the acer only had a 3 cell? also, didn't it come with a 5400 RPM drive?
Love it, posting from it now actually. And I'm also connected via VPN to work and remote controlling my laptop there using Remote Desktop. Excellent! The battery comes in 3, 6, and 9 cell varieties. Mine's a 3 and suits my needs for now, but I will be replacing it with a 6 eventually. Mine has the 8GB SSD drive, but the 1.8" ZIF drives I thought were 4200RPM. I could be wrong. EDIT: I don't know how 7200RPM could even be possible actually, these (at least mine) does not support SATA. Be cautious with the seller, sounds kinda fishy. EDITx2: Did some quick searches and it does indeed appear to be possible. [runs of to see how to do it...]
I'm really starting to want a netbook more and more and more... It just seems so perfect for casual surfing and chat and wouldn't keep me tied to a chair and desk to feed a habit. Plus they're small enough that I don't feel like a douchebag carrying one around. I'll definitely pick up a 16GB SSD model with a 6 cell. I hope the Linux OS is decent
Well, technically I do have the 16GB model. It has an 8GB SSD drive for the OS and a 8GB SD card for the data. I replaced it with a 16GB HC SD card, so 24GB total. The really bitchin thing is that it has dual SD card slots so I could add yet another 16GB HC SD card, giving me a total of 40GB of storage. Not bad, eh? Slow though, but not cramping my style at all.
OK, a SATA drive is possible but rather involved. I'm talking soldering on the motherboard involved, no thanks... http://www.netbooknews.it/en/disco-da-25-su-aspire-one-a110/
